Failure to Communicate
by Dani Meows
Summary: "We're best friends, we live together, eat together, and sometimes we fall asleep on the couch together," he began, "The only thing that would change is that you'd show up to my lab every once in a while, hold my hands, and convince these girls that I'm taken. Please Jemma. I'm desperate."


**Failure to Communicate:**

Jemma looked curiously at her best friend wondering how to get him to talk. He was grumpier than usual and, while normally he'd rant for ages about how his coworkers were idiots and how he wished they worked in the same department since he missed working with an intelligent lab partner until he'd finally let out all of his frustration and was only somewhat grumpy, today he sat there not saying a word. Jemma had known Leo since they were 14 and were two lonely and terrified freshman students alone in America on international scholarships and she had come to accept that _somewhat disgruntled_ was a natural Leopold Fitz state.

Jemma wished they were working in the same department too. She wouldn't say her partners were complete idiots but they weren't as smart as Leo. Sadly their bosses considered biochemistry and engineering as two separate departments even though they did some of their best work for their doctorates working together. She however, didn't see the point of ranting about it. One day soon, once they'd made enough money, maybe they could have their own lab together and research without having to deal with lab partners who don't know how to think but until then they were stuck working at Shield University labs. Besides, Leo ranted enough for them both.

Today, he wore his moody, grumpy Scotsman face but he wasn't talking. Jemma ran through her mental list of known Leopold Fitz behaviors... they hadn't had a fight. Last night they'd watched Star Trek, cleaned the kitchen, had a before bed cup of tea. This morning she'd woken up earlier than him and had left his breakfast on the table alongside his packed lunch, like a good friend and flatmate who doesn't want to come home to a flat on fire again because Leo can't cook. Once was more than enough. But still grumpy, pouty face but no ranting. Signs say grumpy Leo but what does silence mean...?

"Hey Leo, are you angry with me?" she asked.

"What?" Leo exclaimed, "No!"

There was silence for a moment as he stared at her apparently shocked that she could think that he was mad at her.

"It's just..." he started but then paused for a few moments opening and then closing his mouth. Jemma thought to herself that he looked like a fish but figured she'd keep that to herself. She grabbed a cup of tea and took a sip giving Leo a chance to get his thoughts in order.

She nearly spat out her tea as Leo blurted out, "Will you be my fiance?"

Jemma swallowed her tea, "Pardon?", she asked seeking clarification.

They were best friends. He preferred more beautiful and outgoing girls like Skye but she was plain. Half the time she wasn't even certain that her best friend was aware that she was a girl. Well, except for that time she made him run to the drug store for pads, but that was different.

She was aware that he was an attractive man. Years ago when they were 17 year-old geniuses in their last year of college together, she'd asked him out on a date. Well, she'd asked him to go to a New Years party with her. He'd even said yes. She had thought that he knew it was a date but he'd brought Skye to the party as his date, which was when Jemma decided that he didn't feel the same way about her and that he just wanted to be friends and that it was better to just be friends. Relationships were complicated and, if they weren't friends anymore, who would she call from the lab excited when an idea worked better than she thought it would when she tested it? But now he wanted her to be his fiance? Jemma wanted to pour her hot tea into his lap.

"Not my fiance, just my fiance," he said cheeks bright red as his face began to flush.

"Well that clears it up..." Jemma said, a little bit more sarcastically then she would have liked.

But Jemma had buried that 17 year-old part of herself who'd been in L- who'd had a crush on her very best friend in the world and who'd been heartbroken at the realization that he probably didn't feel the same. She'd felt that long buried part of herself flutter at his statement. And she needed to ruthlessly shut it down. They were just friends. Leopold Fitz and Jemma Simmons;they'd never work out. Just friends. They were just friends. Even if people called them Fitzsimmons and acted like they were one brain in two bodies, especially during staff meetings when they explained the projects they worked on together despite being in separate labs. Friends who completed each others sentences and were always together. Friends, friends, just friends. Jemma yelled at her heart to stop fluttering.

"He doesn't mean it the way you wish he did," she thought to herself. But her 17 year-old self had hope. Maybe she'd been wrong five years ago and Leo did like her that way.

Leo's hands were running through his curls in frustration.

"My fake fiance!" he finally shouted.

The 17 year-old part of Jemma wanted to curl up and die. The 22 year-old part of Jemma was... well she wasn't devastated and Jemma ignored that part of her that felt slightly crushed that he'd only consider her for a fake girlfriend or fiance. Part of her asked why she wasn't good enough for her parents, for Leo, and why no one loved her for herself. Jemma shoved that side of herself away. It was almost that time of the month she could give in to the tears and coming mental breakdown and blame it on her monthlies later. Leo would bring her chocolate biscuits and tea and beg her to never ever send him to the store for her supplies again but he'd never question her emotions beyond that.

Right, he still needed a response. Jemma poked her brain."You have two PhD's and are a genius, come up with something good brain..." she thought.

Her brain had nothing.

"No." she said. She said it forcefully and with authority. There was a period at the end of that one word sentence. It was over. She could leave for her bedroom, shut the door and hug Mr. Cuddles, her teddy bear, while she sobbed and laughed and sobbed some more.

"But," Leo said.

"No," Jemma replied.

"They won't stop harassing me and I thought if I told them I was engaged that they'd stop flirting and making uncomfortable suggestive comments that border just on the edge of sexual harassment. Please Jem..." he begged. His eyes were wide and oh-so blue. Jemma felt herself caving.

"No," she replied. His lower lip wasn't pouting, she was immune. Immune dammit. She wasn't going to cave in. She wasn't.

"We're best friends, we live together, eat together, and sometimes we fall asleep on the couch together," he began, "The only thing that would change is that you'd show up to my lab every once in a while, hold my hands, and convince these girls that I'm taken. Please Jemma. I'm desperate."

Jemma shook her head. Trying not to give into those blue eyes and that lip that was now pouting.

"If you do this, I'll watch every show that you insist we must watch, even if it's romantic, without a single complaint," he bargained.

Jemma sighed. There were a lot of tv shows she wanted to watch and watching Leo try and watch them without complaining would be comedy gold. He complained about everything, even shows that he liked. And they were best friends, defending his honor against girls that wouldn't stop trying to date him and refused to get the hint that he wasn't interested in them was probably in the job description.

"Fine," she sighed, giving into the inevitable. So far she'd successfully denied Leo something that he'd really wanted exactly zero times and it would probably always be that way. It was just the eyes, the pout, and the way he asked her for so little, and the way he also did so much for her.

His hands began to fumble around in his pocket for something and he pulled out a small black ring box.

"It belonged to my Gran," Fitz said, sliding a ring onto her finger. It was a perfect fit.

The upcoming hysteria session once she got to the privacy of her room would be a dozy because of course, the ring would fit and of course, it was perfect. A gold band with diamonds and amethysts on her ring finger.

She was fake engaged to her best friend that she'd once been in love with who'd broken her heart. Hopefully he wouldn't do it again. She could prevent him from breaking her heart. She could. Jemma said a quick excuse and ran to her bedroom, managing to make it there before the tears started.

Tomorrow she'd set ground rules for this. A list of behaviors that he was not allowed to do... or something. She'd protect her heart.

But for now she'd cry because today had ripped from her the denial she'd had that she didn't still love him. She was in love with her best friend, Leopold Fitz, who didn't love her that way. She knew that he loved her as a friend but he didn't want her romantically. She probably always would be in love with him, and now she had to _pretend_ to be pretending to be head over heels in love with him. There was no way to protect her heart from this. When it was over she was going to hurt. But she'd get through this without letting Leo know just how much she loved him and how much she wished that the ring resting on her finger was for real.

She clutched her teddy bear and sobbed, trying to keep her sobs muffled. She didn't want him to come comfort her. He'd make it worse. She wanted to be alone.

"What had he done?" Leo thought to himself, feeling like he'd like to hyperventilate at any moment. He'd slid the ring onto her finger and expected them to laugh and watch the telly together until it was time for sleep. He pretended that the ring didn't look perfect on her finger and that he didn't say he wished that she was wearing it for real. But all those years ago when he'd taken Skye's advice to make Jemma jealous and thus make a move on him because he was too cowardly to do it himself, she'd never gotten jealous. She'd just left the New Years Party a little after midnight and then acted just the same as always, so they just stayed friends.

But Jemma had excused herself and gone to her room for the night. She'd looked almost hurt before she'd pushed it away, with that smile of hers that he hated. It wasn't her real smile, which was so happy and bright he'd do almost anything to make her happy just to see it. It was her, _I'm hurt but I don't want to admit it or talk about why_ smile. Her real smile lit up her eyes and made him smile back no matter what sort of mood he was in.

But why was she hurt? How could he find out what was wrong if she wouldn't talk to him? Leo sighed in frustration and not for the first time lamented how reserved Jemma was. She always hid her emotions even from him. How was he supposed to fix what was wrong if she never told him? He felt so helpless.

He stared at the ceiling and gave up on figuring out the best friend who he was hopelessly in love with. They'd met at Uni, 14 year-old geniuses away from home and rather out of place among the people who were all so much older than them. They'd hit it off right away and hadn't once been separated from each other for longer than a week.

Sometimes he wished Jemma was as easy to figure out as the robots he created. The _Jemma technical manual: A complete idiots guide to figuring out Jemma Simmons_ , that was what he needed. He'd buy it and study it religiously until he actually knew what it was that Jemma wanted and needed from him.

He sighed again, looking at Jemma's closed door. He knew she was crying. He also knew that the door was shut and that she probably didn't want him to go in there.

He set his alarm clock for ungodly early in the morning. Maybe if he cooked her breakfast she'd be happier in the morning? He should be able to handle making pancakes. He was a genius. How hard could it be?

He went to his bedroom with intent to go to bed but found himself on facebook. He hated facebook. If it wasn't necessary for several of the groups he was in he'd never use his account. The girls that were harassing him had his facebook account. Considering the options he changed his relationship status from _single to engaged to Jemma Simmons._

He wished it was real. Jemma and him getting married. What would change besides sex and kisses? They'd still spend most of their time together but he'd get flirted with a lot less. And rather than waking up separately they'd wake up together. And then the kissing, he'd wanted to kiss her since he was 14, adding kisses to their routine would be nice. His thoughts followed him into sleep where he dreamed about domestic happiness with Jemma and zombie apocalypses.

The next morning he growled at his phone as the alarm went off. "The sun isn't even up yet for god's sake, why am I up so early?" he groused before beginning to make pancakes.

Apparently, making pancakes was very hard. He'd only looked away for a few seconds, distracted by the discovery of an interesting article about the usage of AI in various fields, when the fire alarm went off as the pancakes became a charred mess.

He turned the heat off and began beating near the fire alarm with a dishtowel.

Jemma's door opened as she surveyed the mess. Her eyes were wide with fear that was slowly calming down and they were red rimmed and tear stained. The conformation that she'd been crying last night combined with the frustration at not being able to surprise her with breakfast ate at him.

"Oh, Leo," she sighed. Then she began to giggle. Her smile was real and bright as she laughed at him. He smiled back not even caring that she was laughing at his latest kitchen failure and disaster.

"You are so bad at cooking," she said, "what distracted you this time?"

He responded with his usual sheepish, embarrassed look and held up the engineering journal.

Jemma removed the pancake remains from the stove, grabbed a new pan, buttered it, and began making pancakes with the left over batter as he told her about the article. They were deep in conversation about the uses of AI and how they could design one that could help them with their work and Leo had begun to think that maybe things would be okay.

This fake engagement could not only get his female coworkers to leave him alone but it could also maybe show Jemma just how good they could be in a romantic relationship and then, maybe, they could be in a relationship for real at the end.

That was when his phone went off. A series of texts from Skye in quick succession, congratulating him on finally getting the girl and wanting to know when, how, and if he'd finally gotten the balls to tell her that he'd been in love with her since they were 14. And why they'd never told her they were dating. The conversation with Skye later was going to be a very long one.

Then Jemma's phone went off. She grabbed it before he could distract her. The pancake she'd been taking a bite from was dropped back onto the plate with a clatter as she stared at her phone in shock.

"Leo, why are our friends congratulating me on being engaged?" she asked. Her voice was rather high pitched.

He was a dead man. He hadn't thought this one through.

"Because I posted it on facebook last night?" he asked.

"What!" she screeched. He was a dead man. He was so dead. Her temper was slow to ignite but when it ignited it was very dangerous to be the one she was focused on. He loved watching when her temper was aimed at others though. It was arousing to watch the fire and temper spread across her face as she verbally assaulted the other person into submission, using her high intelligence and her excellent vocabulary to slay the other person's argument. It was a true delight. He didn't want to be on this end though.

"Why did you do that?" she asked. Her voice was trying to be even. She was trying for calm. Maybe things wouldn't explode, after all.

There were tears in her eyes suddenly as she continued and Leo knew that it was worse than him being verbally eviscerated by a Jemma in a temper, he'd made her cry. He was such a bastard.

"Now when this is over, when you post that we're no longer in a relationship people will know that you..." Jemma's voice cracked as the tears overwhelmed her, "that you broke my heart and this time we won't be able to stay just friends because people will know that I..."

Her head dropped to the table and she began to cry.

Leo grabbed her and held her to him. She didn't resist and snuggled into him, sobbing against him.

"This time? When did I break your heart?" he asked. He hadn't had he? As far as he knew he'd never hurt her.

"It doesn't matter," Jemma said, trying to turn away from him so that he couldn't look at her.

"Yes it does," he argued.

"New Years Eve when were 17," she began and he drew a deep breath as she continued, "I asked you out. You went with Skye-"

"To make you jealous," he interrupted trying to explain his actions only to have his breath stolen from him as she continued what she'd been saying seemingly not hearing him.

"I wasn't good enough, you didn't want to date me. Even now you don't want us in a real relationship but a fake one."

Leo felt like crying all of those years ago when he'd been in love with his best friend and been so convinced that she didn't feel the same way when she hadn't gotten jealous when he brought Skye. All this time, she'd thought that she hadn't been good enough for him? All these years that he'd spent convinced that she didn't love him as more than a friend and she'd asked him out on a date? He'd thought it had been an as friends invite and Skye had suggested that she go with him and flirt with him a bit and that Jemma would be jealous and admit that she liked him and they'd all live happily ever after. But it hadn't happened.

Jemma had walked away. Why had she walked away?

He suddenly felt like the biggest idiot in the world. Of course she'd walked away. Her parents hadn't wanted a genius for a child. They'd fed her and clothed her but they hadn't loved her. When he'd given her a hug when they were 14 and reunited after Christmas break, he'd baffled her because no one else had ever hugged her before and he'd overwhelmed her. Of course she wouldn't act jealous, of course she wouldn't make a move, no one else had loved her she would have assumed that he didn't love her.

He was a moron.

"I love you," he blurted out. His heart began to race. What was he doing? There was no choice, no _other_ choice that might end with them being happy and if he had been less of a moron back then and had worked up the courage to just tell her neither of them might have spent five years pretending to just have friendly feelings for the other.

"I've been in love with you since we were 14. You've always been what made me happy. I thought the New Years Party was a _lets go as friends_ thing and Skye who knew that I was madly in love with you suggested that we go together and flirt a bit to make you jealous. When you didn't get jealous, I thought that you didn't feel the same about me. I didn't know that it had been a date and I didn't think that you would just hide your feelings rather than show them. I love you, I'm sorry I couldn't find the courage to tell you before."

Jemma looked at him, overwhelmed. She wasn't crying anymore and he could see her processing his words.

"I love you too," she said. "I realized I loved you during that spring break when we were 16 when you stayed with me the whole time because someone had destroyed my chemistry project and I had to do it all over. And you never complained even though we were supposed to go to New York instead."

Leo remembered that. He hadn't complained because he would have rather been with her then on vacation without her.

He leaned in to kiss her. Their lips almost touched when the alarm Leo had set on his phone to leave for work chimed.

"Oh no! I'll be late to work!" Jemma cried as she pushed away from him and rushed to begin a mad scramble for her stuff before running to her room to take a quick shower and get dressed.

Work was going to be interesting. Not only would he have to answer people's questions about his suddenly romantic relationship with Jemma but his mind wouldn't be focused on any of the projects he's been working on.

Jemma loved him. They'd nearly kissed. Jemma loved him. It was going to be a long day.

"Come visit me at lunch time, I'll get take out?" he asked.

"Yeah," Jemma shouted from the shower. "I'll be there at noon."

He finished getting ready for work and headed out. He woke up early and was still barely on time but Jemma loved him.

Jemma felt far less stressed than she expected to be. Though if she couldn't get her brain to focus she'd probably arrive late to her lab and possibly screw up a few experiments

 _Why did it have to be a work day?_ Jemma thought as she got dressed. She was going to blow something up if she didn't get her mind to focus on her work.

She slid the ring back onto her finger. It looked lovely and it was less painful to see on her finger than it was when she thought that he'd never love her. He loved her. The engagement was fake but he loved her. It was a glorious day.

Leo loved her. All this time and he'd loved her back. She felt euphoric. She also wanted to smash his phone to bits for interrupting before they'd kissed.

And she was late for work. She grabbed her bag, darted out the door, barely remembering to lock the door.

She typed in a text to Leo as she caught the bus to her lab:

 _Still on for the fake engagement? See you at noon._

A reply came quickly:

 _We're still on. Do you want Chinese?_

After clarifying her lunch order, Jemma shoved all thoughts of Leo or rings out of her mind and tried to focus on her work. The potential medication that she was working on could help treat various illnesses and it deserved her full concentration.

Or at least she tried to give it her full concentration.

Her boss, May, was glaring at her and said, "Doctor Simmons, you're late."

"I'm sorry about that," Jemma said as she tried to come up with an excuse that wasn't _Leo nearly burnt down our kitchen this morning while trying to cook and then we realized that we both loved one another_. Her hands moved with her nerves.

"Congratulations," May said as she noticed the ring shining on Jemma's finger, "I assume you're engaged to Doctor Fitz?"

"Yes, thank you." she said. Grateful for the ring saving her from trying to lie. She smiled and then got to work.

After all, it wasn't really a lie. Leo had posted that they were engaged on facebook, she did have a ring and even if the engagement was fake, there was still the possibility now that he loved her that it'd be real one day.

Then she shoved all thoughts of Leo and weddings out of her mind and began to focus on the chemical compound that she'd been studying for the past few weeks, and eventually she was fully absorbed in her work and her fascination with this new compound and time passed quickly.

As noon approached, Jemma put her work away with a smile. Normally she hated being interrupted mid thought process but today she had something more than a sandwich to look forward too and thus she wasn't postponing lunch until later in the day.

She left for her lunch and began the long and somewhat annoying walk to Leo's lab. One day they'd work in the same lab and they'd do their science together rather than separately. One day.

Jemma knocked on the door and felt somewhat awkward as he grinned at her.

"Ready for lunch?" he asked as he wiped the grease off his hands with a towel, before he went over to the sink to wash his hands.

Jemma grinned back and nodded. The girls that had been harassing him had left for lunch already but he still grabbed her hand as they walked back out and to the nearby Chinese place to pick up their order.

He told her about the latest progress in the robot that he working on to help with crime scene investigations. Right now his robot was not doing what it was programmed to do and kept throwing up errors. Jemma wished she worked in the same lab just to watch him curse at it. One of the things she missed most from when they shared learning lab times was watching him curse at his projects in baffled frustration when they didn't work right and his gleeful euphoria when they did what they were supposed to do.

That was when the Dean of Sciences for Shield University, Doctor Coulson, stopped them.

"Congratulations on your engagement," he said.

Their boss, who oversaw all of their work and who they were hoping to convince to let the science and engineering departments work together on projects and share lab space, knew about their fake engagement.

"Thank you, sir," they said in tandem. Both of them were trying hard to keep the panic off their faces.

"Let me know when the wedding is," Coulson said, "I'll make sure you have time off."

 _Well shit_ , Jemma thought, now they couldn't cancel the engagement. Should they just have a really really long engagement or would they have a fake wedding to go with their fake engagement?

"We will, sir," Leo said.

He squeezed her hand reassuringly and they continued their path towards food.

Jemma stopped him and led him to a somewhat hidden from view spot so that she could hopefully, talk to him without being heard.

"What are we going to do about all these people expecting us to get married?" she whispered, feeling rather hysterical again. "Are we going to have a fake wedding too?" she asked.

Leo looked at her and then said, "We could have a real wedding. After all we've been practically married for years."

Jemma stared at him for a moment.

"Okay then. I want a real proposal though. Or should I just tell people that, after being more grumpy than normal after I prompted you into talking by asking if you were mad at me, you just blurted out, "Will you be my fiance?"

Leo practically giggled as he said, "Why not? It worked."

"Yesterday we were just friends who happened to be head over heels in love with one another and today we are engaged..." Jemma said.

"How strange," Leo said before leaning in and finally kissing her.

Once they'd gotten their food and had begun eating, Jemma asked, "So when should we get married?"

"As soon as all our friends and my mum can get here so we can throw a party and hold a wedding?" Leo answered.

"Fancy wedding or casual wedding?" Jemma asked. She really didn't care. For all she cared they could just go to the courthouse, sign some papers, say some words, and then have a party with their friends before going on a brief vacation. She wasn't certain if she wanted to wear a fancy white puffy dress, even if she did want to see Leo in a tux. He'd look nice.

"Whichever you want," he answered, "but for all I care we can just elope and have a party."

Jemma grinned. "So tonight we'll call our friends and family invite them to watch us elope at a courthouse whenever they can all get down here and then throw a party celebrating after?"

He leaned in and kissed her again before they separated to go back to work.

"Should I fake that we're having a baby next year," he joked before they separated.

"Only if you're the one giving birth," she retorted.

"Or we could just get a monkey," he fired back before she was out of hearing range.

Jemma laughed to herself as she went back into scientist mode. They were engaged for real suddenly even though they weren't even dating. She pulled out her phone to send a quick text before sliding it back into her pocket:

 _Technically we could have a baby and call it a little monkey. Perhaps even a monkey costume?_

At another lab, at the same school, but a good distance away a grinning Leo picked up his phone, and then choked back laughter. Before being distracted suddenly by the idea of Jemma holding a baby, his baby, dressed up as monkey, with little baby hands pretending to be little monkey paws. A little baby with Jemma's features. A little one playing with a child's chemistry set while wearing a lab coat. A little one accidentally causing small fires as they exercised their curiosity. His brain turned to mush before he tried to reactivate it.

He wondered if he should thank those girls who were always flirting with him and once attempted to pinch his bum. If it wasn't for them he never would have fake proposed to Jemma and they wouldn't be about to get married and talking about having a baby.

Life, Leo thought, was good.


End file.
